Thalia's Niece Among The Cast On U.s.-shot Telenovela

MAGALY MORALES ON LATIN TELEVISION

May 10, 2004|MAGALY MORALES ON LATIN TELEVISION

Televisa's first telenovela made completely in the United States began production last week.

Inocente de Ti is expected to premiere later this year on UnivisiM-sn, which is partly owned by the Mexican network. The teledrama stars Valentino LanM-zs and Camila Sodi in a remake of Televisa's MarM-ma Mercedes, a 1992 Cinderella story that featured Mexican singer-actress ThalM-ma, who is Sodi's aunt.

Sodi bears a striking resemblance to her aunt, who during the '90s was considered the queen of Mexican telenovelas. Sodi began her career as a model and now hosts a music-video show on Mexican cable network Telehit. She is the daughter of Ernestina Sodi, who with ThalM-ma's other sister, Laura Zapata, was kidnapped two years ago and held for more than a month.

The decision to produce in Miami is the latest in a series of moves indicating the increased importance Televisa is placing on the United States and particularly South Florida.

Earlier this year, Emilio AzcM-arraga Jean, president of Mexico's media giant Grupo Televisa, expanded his company's reach in the U.S. Hispanic market by moving his offices to Miami.

The series about the life of the Mexican revolutionary hero Emiliano Zapata is directed by Walter Doehner. Promos are already airing on Telemundo.

Zapata, which stars DemiM-an Bichir and Lorena Rojas in lead roles, will mix history with fiction and be mostly a love story. The series will be shot in MM-ixico City, Puebla and Hidalgo, and will air in four one-hour episodes.

Argos is one of Mexico's most important independent producers, creating telenovelas with groundbreaking story lines such as Mirada de Mujer and La Vida en el Espejo.

Kerry and Hispanic vote

As a testament to the importance to the Hispanic community and its growing role in the country's political landscape, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry sat down last week with UnivisiM-sn news anchor Jorge Ramos in his first one-on-one interview with a Spanish-language television network.

Among the topics discussed were Kerry's position on amnesty toward undocumented immigrants, the embargo on Cuba, the high dropout rate of Hispanic high school students, the war in Iraq and the U.S. economy.

"For Kerry to have chosen the UnivisiM-sn network as a medium to reach U.S. voters is extremely significant since it demonstrates that politicians and presidential candidates need to speak to Spanish-language media to attract the Hispanic vote," said Ramos.